Wednesday, May 4, 2016

KCBS-TV
Channel 2’s Rick Garcia sat down with former longtime morning man Rick
Dees to “share past and present memories.” You can see it online at http://tinyurl.com/DeesCBS

Interesting, though incomplete and incorrect.

“When did you start to conquer the radio world in the morning?” asked Garcia.

“Well, I remember getting a call and it was a ... kind of a disco station. They called it KIIS,” explains Dees.

Don’t
get me wrong - I love Rick Dees. I can’t figure out why a talent like
him is not on the air somewhere here in town with the freedom to do a
show like he once did, not the shell they allowed when he was last
waking Los Angeles at Movin’ 92.3 a few years ago. But Dees is wrong,
and he knows it.

He
really got “the call” from RKO’s KHJ (930 AM), as part of master
programmer Chuck Martin’s plan to revitalize and restore KHJ’s glory.
This was in 1979. Dees -- and an entire airstaff of excellent DJs led by
the expertise of Martin -- actually propelled KHJ up in the ratings, at
a rate that caught owner RKO by surprise. Unfortunately, it was so much
of a surprise that RKO heads in New York had (unbeknownst to Martin)
already committed to change the format from top-40 to country. Dees left
after the change in November, 1980 but did not start on KIIS-FM (102.7)
until July of 1981. By then, KIIS had already dropped disco.

Not that this really means anything. But it does give me a chance to mention KHJ, Martin and Dees in one story. I like that.

This
was a time when KRTH was playing a lot of current music, mixed with the
occasional “gold,” or what we used to call oldies. In some ways, as it
says in the description, it is the “KHJ on FM” that many wish was still
on the air ... and that was tried on K-WEST (now KPWR, 105.9 FM) at
roughly the same time. Interestingly, this aircheck from 1981 features
Pat Evans playing “more music in the morning” due to the former morning
team of John London and Ron Engelman moving to K-WEST. Also featured:
Brian Bierne, “Mr. Rock and Roll.”

What
made the station great? First off ... the jingles: I love the old KRTH
jingles from the era. Current music was the majority of the mix but with
plenty of oldies as flavor. This allowed weekends to be particularly
good because weekends could be something different than the weekday
format. You could hear the “runners up of rock” one weekend, a “souvenir
of the seventies” the next. It was great radio, a format I think would
still work today.

Fundraiser

Cal
State Long Beach is gearing up for their annual K-Beach fundraiser,
which will take place the weekend of May 20, 21 and 22. More details
will come as the weekend approaches.

K-Beach
is a student-run station on the campus and broadcasts using the digital
HD stream of KJAZ (88.1 FM). So you need either an HD Radio tuner or
online access to hear it, but just having a student-run station at Cal
State Long Beach is wonderful.